Teen charged with murder of Irishman

December 17, 2014

A 13-year-old has been charged with the murder of an Irish construction worker outside his north London home.

Christophen John Barry, aged 53 and known locally as Jack, is believed to have got involved in a verbal altercation with a group of males as he attempted to gain entry with his Irish girlfriends into the block of Edmonton flats he lived in.

The victim, originally from Cobh in Co. Cork, continued into the block on The Broadway, N9, but was followed by two of the males. He was then stabbed. The teenagers are all aged 13 and 14.

An ambulance and police officers attended the scene, where he was pronounced dead and a post mortem examination gave the cause of death as a stab wound.

The boy has been remanded in custody to appear at Highbury Corner Youth Court on Wednesday 17 December.

Four other boys, three aged 14 and one aged 13, arrested on suspicion of murder have been bailed to return to an east London police station on a date in late January 2015 pending further enquiries.

Detective Chief Inspector Neale Baldock of the Homicide and Major Crime Command leads the investigation. He said:

“Our initial enquiries have established that there was a supervised party taking place at another address within the block and the group of males were trying to gain access to this.

“The victim and this group were not known to each other – what started as a minor verbal altercation has escalated into a shocking act of violence.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the incident room on 0208 345 1570 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.